Touchdown Tommy got tuned up.
And it was terrific to see.
On a Wednesday afternoon, Tom Brady and his newly-minted champion teammates took to Tampa Bay like some swashbuckling and cavalier, hastily-thrown-together misfit navy.
They boarded boats.
They partied.
They got sloshed, smashed and sozzled in the sun.
They threw the Lombardi Trophy from vessel to vessel and they carried about in the Bay. Their shenanigans on the (not real high) seas were innocent fun as law enforcement guarded their every move and sober people were in charge of what sober people should have been in charge of.
Know what? Brady played the role brilliantly. He was great.
I’m sure you have seen it by now, the quick video that made its way to social media with Brady leaving the fenced-in dock area being supported as he walked.
TB was wrecked. TB12 was TB .12 --- and then a lot more.
His feet were unsteady and he had a big smile on his face that was somewhere between “I need a huge plate of french fries” and “I’ll probably throw up later but I don’t care.”
In the weirdest way, it was probably one of the most relatable Tom Brady has ever been in his football playing days. I mean, this is the man who is married to a supermodel and looks, incessantly, as if he just walked off the set of a Ralph Lauren magazine shoot.
He’s normally stiffer than the Tin Man and, for certain, lives in a different stratosphere than 99.9999 percent of us.
But not on this day.
He went out with his pals, did some day drinking and got drunk. And had a good time doing it. Who hasn’t been there?
There might not be 10 people on the planet who can go out and get inebriated to the point where they need a little help walking and it actually improves their brand --- but, to me at least, Tom Brady was it.
There can’t be a more than a handful of people on this Earth who are seen in public after they’ve had too much to drink and it actually makes their public image take a spike in the positive direction --- but, to me at least, Tom Brady was it.
He became one of us.
He was no longer a robot. Tom Brady actually was, gulp, a real person!
If even for just a few hours, Tom Terrific did what a ton of other middle-aged guys have done with their friends when they have a free day out of the house. Oh yes, he had probably one too many. But without that one (probably way more) too many, never would have realized the true fun he had.
Instead of pine nuts and hummus it was Patron and Heineken --- at least for one afternoon.
And it was glorious.
Brady put down the kale and picked up the Courvoisier --- if even just for one day.
And it was actually refreshing to see. Good on him; good on Brady.
In short order there is no question he will go back to the ultra-buttoned-up guy that appears to distant because, well, we really cannot relate to him. His life is distant; it’s a fairy tale.
But for that one February day as his legs got a little wobbly and he had that “I’m buzzed” smile going on Tom Brady seemed, dare I say, regular.
Good on him.